N Scale Engines / Locomotives

N scale is the second most popular model railroad scale in North America, and accounts for nearly a quarter of all model railroaders. Since its introduction in 1962, N scale has seen vast improvements in the availability and quality of engines, rolling stock, structures, and accessories.

Today there are a number of N scale locomotive manufacturers. These manufacturers include Arnold, Atlas, Bachmann, and Life-Like to name a few. Additionally, Kato is the premier importer of N scale engines and rolling stock.

N Gauge or N Scale

The term N gauge is often used interchangeably with N scale, and refers to the distance between the rails, which is 9mm. In N gauge, a scale mile is 10 meters or 33 feet, and locomotives are a 1/160th scale of their real-life prototypes.

N Scale Engines and Prototype History

As previously stated, model railroad engines, structures, rolling stock and accessories are based on real-life prototypes, regardless of the scale being modeled. Locomotives come in all shapes, sizes, and colors.

The model railroading hobbyist has a wide variety of N scale engines to choose from. I've highlighted a few Bachmann locomotives below, and have included a brief history of their corresponding prototypes.

American 4-4-0

Designed by John B. Jervis, the first 4-4-0, called the American No. 1 rolled off the showroom floor in 1832.

The 4-4-0 was an extremely popular steam locomotive. Although considered slow by today's standards, the 4-4-0 was capable of reaching speeds of 60 mph.

Sadly enough by 1900 the classic American 4-4-0 was obsolete. The last 4-4-0 was built in 1945 for the United Railways of Yucatan.

Consolidation 2-8-0

The Consolidation 2-8-0 made its locomotive debut in 1866. During its run, total U.S. production was more than 33,000.

2-8-0 locomotives were designed to pull heavy freight. These engines could move trains that were twice as heavy for half the cost of their earlier predecessors. In addition to the U.S. market, these steam engines were sold to Germany, Britain, Belgium, and Australia.

EMD GP40

The prototype of this N scale diesel locomotive was built by the General Motors Electro Motive Division (EMD).

The GP40 had a 16 cylinder, 3000 horsepower engine, and was built from 1965 to 1971.

These locomotives were primarily used for freight service, but some eventually found their way into passenger service as well.

In addition to the standard GP40 configuration, a number of variations were built to accommodate the passenger service market. One such variation used by the Southern Pacific for it's San Francisco commuter service was the GP40P-2 engine.

The EMD GP40 prototype provides N gauge modelers with a very attractive and popular N scale engine.